Weight training = Weight loss

So I have to rant today about one of the most illogical things that I hear.  In the same breath a mom will tell me that she really needs to workout so that she can lose weight.  Yet the next sentence out of the same person is that they don't want their daughter to workout because she will gain weight.  So tell me Ms. Illogical, does working out make you lose or gain weight cause it can't do both.  Well the answer is simple, women(this is especially true for young girls/boys) do not have the necessary hormones to create a large amount of muscle mass.  The huge women bodybuilders that people see in magazines eat/sleep and breathe diet and training.  Yet they still can't gain the kind of muscle that they have unless they artificially add testosterone to their bodies.   So I guess if the mom in the above example was injecting her daughter with testosterone then yes she would gain weight from working out. Otherwise the daughter will just end up being leaner, stronger, more explosive and athletic, all of which being very positive no matter what the sport.  The other issue is that bodybuilders train in a way that is purposefully inducing hypertrophy or muscle gain.  The goal of their training is to put on muscle, and that's how they eat and train.  We train athletes to be faster, more explosive and more athletic.  This means that they must be stronger for their body weight in order for them to run faster or jump higher.  Putting on excessive muscle would be counter productive and thus is why that type of training is not used for athletes.  I have been weight training for 20 years and have dedicated my life to the sport.  I eat, sleep and breathe training and have done so for many years.  On top of that I have gifted genetics to put on size for my sport.  All of this being said it kills me when a person says that they don't want to lift weights or let their child lift weights because they don't want to get big like me.  That's like me saying I don't want my son to shoot a basketball becuase I don't want him to be as good as LeBron at basketball.  So the moral to my rant is please stop throwing out illogical statements and ask the experts here at The Spot Athletics if you really are confused because these crazy statements about weight training have to stop.

5K for client who was told she wouldn't run again

Congrats to personal training client Sandy Schluep, for placing 4th in her age group at the Rotary Honors Veterans 5k.  Sandy came to The Spot at 54 years old, after multiple  injuries and being told she would never run again and was determined to turn that disclaimer around  -- proof that when you are determined and committed, you can reach your goals at any age.  Way to go Sandy!

We take care of the Strength and Conditioning and Vitor takes care of the competition

The Spot Athletics is proud of one of our athlete's Vitor Oliveira who fought in his first MMA fight in the US.  Vitor is here from Brazil teaching Jiu Jitsu for Ronin Training Center.  Not only did he win his fight but did so in under 2 minutes.  Vitor's workouts are very intense and he has gained a lot of strength preparing for this fight so the way he dominated is not surprising.  Congratulations Vitor!

Gold Medal for The Spot Athletics Athlete

Vinicius Tavares Marinho won gold at the No Gi Pan Am games this past weekend.  Vinicius is part of GFTeam(Grappling Fight Team), one of the best Jiu Jitsu teams in the world.  Vinicius lives in Brazil but has been training at The Spot Atheltics for his strength and conditioning while in the US.  He made great strides in both strength and conditioning in his time here and will be missed as he is heading back to Brazil this week.  We will post up an interview with him about his training at The Spot soon.  Our motto is "Sweat Hard, See Results" and Vini sweated a whole lot while he was here and at the Pan Am games he saw the results.  Good luck to Vini as he heads back to Brazil and keep training hard.

Ohio State Buckeyes and dead lifting

My daughter Avery isn't 2 years old but she is already a big buckeye fan and knows how to dead lift.  People wonder why Ohio people love the Buckeyes so much but it is taught from such a young age, it just can't be helped.  People also wonder why Ohio has an extraordinary amount of great powerlifters, it's because our kids learn how to lift early.  So here is a video of my daughter wearing her scarlet and grey cheer outfit and doing some dead lifts.  Obviously she is too young to really lift any weight as she can't understand directions but it boggles my mind how parents are scared to let their kids lift any weights in a gym.  Yet these same parents don't think twice when their child is jumping out of a tree, carrying a laundry basket or even carrying around their backpack all day.  These everyday activities place far more stress on the spine than picking up a 10lb weight, yet for some reason their is a negative connotation around weights.  If I do nothing else in this life if I can turn around the illogical stigmatism's about lifting weights then I will have accomplished something very good.  Because proper weight training in young children instills essential motor patterns and improves nervous system function so that our children don't get hurt when they start with competitive sport.

JL 48'' box jump

This is a video of me doing a 48'' box jump today.  In the picture you can see that my hips are at or a little above Stephen's head.   Stephen is 6'2'', which means my hips were at about 74'' or so.  I should be able to land a 65'' box, but because I have had 7 knee surgeries my knee flexion is very poor and I must land box jumps with mostly straight legs.   This shows how important mobility is for athletes and the ability to box jump high as well.   We work a ton on mobility with our athletes and ourselves because being strong isn't very helpful if you cannot use it properly in competition.

CAAT Program

My 20 month old daughter knows what a squat is and we work on pushing her knees out when she squats, the same as I do with my 20 year old athletes.   Teaching the proper movement pattern for these young children ensure that they are successful with these movements as they age.  If a child learns how to use their hips to create force for kicking, throwing and/or punching then they will be successful in any rotational based sport.  Teaching these basic patterns are essential to a child's success in sport and that's why we developed our CAAT (complete athletic ability training) program.  In this program for 6-11 year olds we work on correctly establishing basic movement patterns that will transfer into greater athletic ability as the children age.  Many parents put children in organized sports on a year round basis but most of those sport coaches don't understand correct movement patterns or how to teach them.  This leads to the state of our children today who have poor overall athleticism but have very high sport skill due to the time spent practicing actual sport skill.  I've seen many children who could juggle a soccer ball like a pro but can't run or jump properly so they don't excel at their sport because of the lack of overall athleticism.  Don't let your child fall into this trap and enroll them in our CAAT program so that they have the tools they need to succeed in any sport they choose.